Letter urges timber harvest

Published 3:30 am Tuesday, March 3, 2026

PORT ANGELES — Junior taxing districts represented by the Clallam County Revenue Advisory Committee say they are concerned enough about how the state Department of Natural Resources is managing county forest board transfer lands that they have written to Gov. Bob Ferguson and top legislative leaders urging action.

RAC Chair Connie Beauvais hand delivered a letter on Tuesday in Olympia on behalf of the committee’s 18 members, urging Ferguson and the Legislature — as trustee of county forest board transfer lands — to ensure DNR manages Clallam County’s 94,500 acres to generate revenue for the county and its special districts.

The letter was copied to 24th Legislative District lawmakers Sen. Mike Chapman, D-Port Angeles, chair of the Senate Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee, and Reps. Adam Bernbaum, D-Port Angeles, and Steve Tharinger, D-Port Townsend.

Beauvais also delivered public comment Tuesday at the Board of Natural Resources meeting chaired by Dave Upthegrove, the state commissioner of public lands. Clallam County Commissioner Randy Johnson sits on the six-member board.

In the past year, DNR has withheld eight Clallam County timber sales appraised at $7.9 million — with an estimated market value of up to $12 million — and has not offered tens of millions of board feet scheduled for harvest, creating a backlog of delayed sales that have compounded revenue losses for trust beneficiaries, according to RAC.

“That’s where the problem lies — at the administrative level with DNR,” Beauvais said.

The RAC letter says the withheld sales complied with DNR’s Habitat Conservation Plan, the Forest Practices Act and policies protecting old growth and riparian areas.

She said two developments prompted RAC to send the letter: the paused timber sales and a proposal to set aside additional acreage from timber production.

“We don’t want to see another 77,000 acres set aside across the state that would affect about 4,400 acres in Clallam County,” she said.

County forest board transfer lands date to 1935, when the Legislature authorized counties to deed tax-foreclosed timberland to the state to be managed in trust for counties and their junior taxing districts. Clallam County transferred acreage beginning in 1936 under deeds requiring the state to reforest the lands, manage timber resources and distribute revenue from timber sales to local beneficiaries such as school districts, hospitals, libraries, fire districts and other public agencies.

RAC was organized on Feb. 24, 2024, to provide input regarding the management and distribution of timber revenue in the county.

Timber revenue has funded major local projects, including Quillayute Valley School District’s Spartan Stadium in Forks and Monroe Athletic Field in Port Angeles. The new Sequim Library was financed largely with trust land proceeds, with about $9.1 million of the $10.7 million project — about 85 percent — funded by timber dollars.

But beneficiaries say the revenue can be difficult to predict, complicating planning for capital investments.

Clallam County Fire District 2 budgets about $30,000 to $40,000 a year in timber revenue, although payments fluctuate widely — ranging from about $15,000 in some years to as much as $360,000 in others, Fire Chief Jake Patterson said.

At their meeting today, Fire District 2 commissioners will consider purchasing a $1.1 million Rosenbauer fire engine that became available after another agency canceled its order.

Buying the engine now could help avoid further price increases for an apparatus than can cost between $800,000 and $1.3 million and take take more than two years to be delivered.

Beauvais said legislators should review long-term revenue data and projections to better understand how trust land management decisions affect local governments like fire districts.

“One of the things that we’re asking is for them to look at the dollars over the past 20 years — what’s happening now, what’s happening in the future, why it’s declining and what’s going on,” Beauvais said.

The county and its special districts have raised their concerns with DNR for years without results, she added.

“With the continued diminishment of our harvestable lands, if we don’t stand up and say something, it’s just going to continue to diminish,” Beauvais said.

Because RAC has not seen resolution through Upthegrove or DNR, Beauvais said the committee chose to bring its concerns directly to the Legislature.

“We have a choice,” she said. “We can take it through the legal system, or we can take it to the trustee and say, ‘You need to take a look at this.’”

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.